Review: Daughters of Castle Deverill

Title: Daughters of Castle Deverill

Author: Santa Montefiore

Publisher: 1 September 2016 by Simon and Schuster (Australia)

Pages: 544 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: womens fiction

My Rating: 3 cups

Synopsis:

The sweeping new novel from number one bestselling author Santa Montefiore.

It is 1925 and the war is long over. But much has been lost and life will never truly be the same again.

Castle Deverill, cherished home to the Deverill family in the west of Ireland for hundreds of years, has burned to the ground. But young and flighty Celia Deverill is determined to restore the sad ruin to its former glory. Celia married well and has the wealth, after all, to keep it in the family and she cannot bear to see it stand neglected.

But dark shadows are gathering once more, as the financial markets start to shake. And everything that felt so certain is thrown once again into doubt.

A compelling story of family and history, from the author of the top ten bestseller Songs of Love and War.

My Thoughts

Drawn in by the exquisite cover and premise of  a sweeping, epic (over 500 pages) and romantic saga, I will state from the outset it was  my fault that I didn't realise that this is book two of a trilogy. Some books are easy to read as a stand alone, but unfortunately on this occasion, I found it was not easy to pick up the story that is Daughters of Castle Deverill.

That being said, it was on the whole, a well written story. After the reported actions from book one (I read up as much as I could on that), the main plot appears that everything is travelling along in 1925 with a major refurbishment for the castle (that unearths a mystery) until the financial disaster of 1929 and ensuing fallout. There are characters a plenty and outside the main families there are many other worthy secondary characters who all contribute in some way to this epic tale. Montefiore's deft penmanship transports you to Ireland and America, describing the beauty of both countries at the time. 

For it being a well written tale, I felt it was drawn out in some parts - disjointed and seeming to flit from one thing to the next.  The main characters were not inviting: Kitty was a bit lost, Bridie was bitter and Celia's storyline got interesting towards the end but was not engaging enough from the beginning.  Jack was the one character that was engaging, but sadly he was not present enough. Then, of course, being middle book of a trilogy, there is still much to be revealed and concluded in book three. 

This  book strikes me as one that would adapt well to a television drama series, but just make certain that you jump on board from the beginning. 

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher and provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release